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Kroger seems to have some vision on technology implementation. I’ve been impressed with thier clicklist (online grocery pickup) here in Salt Lake City. Looking

by awat 8y ago

Kroger seems to have some vision on technology implementation. I’ve been impressed with thier clicklist (online grocery pickup) here in Salt Lake City. Looking forward to having this available.

nickpsecurity 8y ago
They have no vision. They got it from overpaying for Harris Teeter who had a $5 online order service. They botched their implementation of it, too. Kroger is strictly top-down, workers-are-idiots management that has to buy its innovations from better-managed companies. People are quitting in droves in all areas of the store and management. Heck, local store has different workers every time I shop. Usually a sign of that. ;) My theory is the media isnt reporting on years of such practices since they're a big customer (advertiser).
- frockington 8y ago
  By that logic McDonalds, Home Depot and Walmart would have been out of business decades ago. Local store turn over has zero indication of management.
  - nickpsecurity 8y ago
    It does when the employees leaving were high-performance workers saying they're leaving due to management. Those that left for Kroger's competitors say they're not as bad. Quick example from local Kroger: 1. They cut staff to almost nothing. On some holidays, there were 2 stockers visible in a store with 20 isles. Stuff is empty everywhere. Dept heads I interviewed said they get "no hours" and were told it was just "bad productivity." 2. Response from corporate office was to hire more managers to do the stocking. So, they think it's cheaper to have manager's do clerk work. Corporate people even come stock before audits. 3. Corporate office sends 10-20 people af a tine to "fix" stores with "process compliance," "policies," and so on. The workers say they re-explain the basics of their job like they're dumb and nitpick them over side jobs. Those that went to Walmart and Target said the new bosses mainly let them do their job. They also have staff for stocking. 4. Workers constantly generate ideas to improve stores. Customer satisfaction and sales go up. Corporate tells them to knock it off to follow "the Process" since it's what customers "want." Numbers go back down. Managers claim workers were at fault since the Process works. Like a cult. 5. Corporate controls everything remotely with many policies made by people with no experience. They control how things are laid out, what is stocked, in what order, how much, with what on a dolly, and so on. Workers are expected to be robots. If this process fails, it's the workers that failed. 6. Their tech is garbage, too. They buy a lot of overpriced stuff that doesnt work like the AI controlling registers. The supervisors do it better. I think the handhelds run SCO OpenServer for terminal stuff. Remember SCO? ;) 7. Currently, lots of their equipment is breaking at the nearby stores with them not replacing or fixing it. Workers are sharing stuff adding overhead. None of this happens at Publix or Costco. They invest in workers, treat them well, let them help innovate, reward them for good work, and so on. They've performed better in most metrics with low turnover. Kroger does the opposite. So, even good veterans are leaving since they're set up to fail every day and mistreated. The union benefits are the only reason veterans I interviewed that stayed were staying.
imroot 8y ago
I'm going to have to disagree -- and this is based on first hand knowledge (albeit from a few years ago), and from second-hand knowledge from friends that I trust who are working in/around Kroger now. Kroger is in a difficult position -- Grocery is a low-margin space: it is the true "race to the bottom," and now, with Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, and Target's acquisition of shipt (Kroger has looked at other delivery services, but, can't find one for the same price point), they're struggling to find the same portfolio matrix to keep them competitive to other startups. They want to use GCE, but, they're truly struggling to use it. They refuse to use AWS for competitive reasons. They don't want to pay for talent (they were offering an Enterprise Architect $25/hour on a contract in the Cincinnati area , they don't want to pay for commercial tooling). Admittedly, in order for them to make money, they have to run truly Lean IT...but, they also make really foolish decisions. They were considering building their own cloud until it was pointed out just the sheer amount of capex needed for that project....and then the VMWare Licensing costs. They spend a crazy amount of money on SurePOS, but, then don't pay for any of the Verifone branding/customization/contactless enablement for their terminals. Technologies like LaneHawk help their cashiers catch shrink, but, their cashiers comment that it's ineffective and do not work 95% of the time. If it was my job to move Kroger's technology forward, I'd probably do the following: * Look at ways to help the cashiers do their job better and more effectively. Finding ways to shave transaction time will add up, enabling more customers per hour to flow through the transaction lines. * Microservices in the store level for things that need to have store level availability, but, push things to cloud services where it's feasible. Yes -- let's buy bigger pipes to the cloud, but, keep a smaller server at the store in case things fail. We can manage that farm in the cloud more efficiently at scale, and then deploy out to the stores nightly or weekly versus continuous delivery in the cloud. * Vendor Selection: Use the right vendors for the right things. Look at how you're spending your money with your vendors, and do a double check to make sure you're not being foolish with your spending (ala, vendors like Pomeory -- 99.99% of the time, you can do it better in house)
- tedmiston 8y ago
  I think Kroger is the Amazon of the grocery space. Even with several attempts, Amazon hasn't been able to change that so far. Too many grocery items are expensive/heavy to ship. I'm in Cincinnati (Kroger HQ) and Amazon is trying extra hard here with special pilots. > Kroger has looked at other delivery services, but, can't find one for the same price point They are already using Instacart in the US and Ocado in the UK. > They want to use GCE, but, they're truly struggling to use it. This is outdated info. Their GCP partnership was publicly announced ~6 months ago.

by awat 8y ago

Kroger seems to have some vision on technology implementation. I’ve been impressed with thier clicklist (online grocery pickup) here in Salt Lake City. Looking forward to having this available.

nickpsecurity 8y ago

They have no vision. They got it from overpaying for Harris Teeter who had a $5 online order service. They botched their implementation of it, too. Kroger is strictly top-down, workers-are-idiots management that has to buy its innovations from better-managed companies. People are quitting in droves in all areas of the store and management. Heck, local store has different workers every time I shop. Usually a sign of that. ;) My theory is the media isnt reporting on years of such practices since they're a big customer (advertiser).

frockington 8y ago
By that logic McDonalds, Home Depot and Walmart would have been out of business decades ago. Local store turn over has zero indication of management.
- nickpsecurity 8y ago
  It does when the employees leaving were high-performance workers saying they're leaving due to management. Those that left for Kroger's competitors say they're not as bad. Quick example from local Kroger: 1. They cut staff to almost nothing. On some holidays, there were 2 stockers visible in a store with 20 isles. Stuff is empty everywhere. Dept heads I interviewed said they get "no hours" and were told it was just "bad productivity." 2. Response from corporate office was to hire more managers to do the stocking. So, they think it's cheaper to have manager's do clerk work. Corporate people even come stock before audits. 3. Corporate office sends 10-20 people af a tine to "fix" stores with "process compliance," "policies," and so on. The workers say they re-explain the basics of their job like they're dumb and nitpick them over side jobs. Those that went to Walmart and Target said the new bosses mainly let them do their job. They also have staff for stocking. 4. Workers constantly generate ideas to improve stores. Customer satisfaction and sales go up. Corporate tells them to knock it off to follow "the Process" since it's what customers "want." Numbers go back down. Managers claim workers were at fault since the Process works. Like a cult. 5. Corporate controls everything remotely with many policies made by people with no experience. They control how things are laid out, what is stocked, in what order, how much, with what on a dolly, and so on. Workers are expected to be robots. If this process fails, it's the workers that failed. 6. Their tech is garbage, too. They buy a lot of overpriced stuff that doesnt work like the AI controlling registers. The supervisors do it better. I think the handhelds run SCO OpenServer for terminal stuff. Remember SCO? ;) 7. Currently, lots of their equipment is breaking at the nearby stores with them not replacing or fixing it. Workers are sharing stuff adding overhead. None of this happens at Publix or Costco. They invest in workers, treat them well, let them help innovate, reward them for good work, and so on. They've performed better in most metrics with low turnover. Kroger does the opposite. So, even good veterans are leaving since they're set up to fail every day and mistreated. The union benefits are the only reason veterans I interviewed that stayed were staying.

imroot 8y ago

I'm going to have to disagree -- and this is based on first hand knowledge (albeit from a few years ago), and from second-hand knowledge from friends that I trust who are working in/around Kroger now. Kroger is in a difficult position -- Grocery is a low-margin space: it is the true "race to the bottom," and now, with Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods, and Target's acquisition of shipt (Kroger has looked at other delivery services, but, can't find one for the same price point), they're struggling to find the same portfolio matrix to keep them competitive to other startups. They want to use GCE, but, they're truly struggling to use it. They refuse to use AWS for competitive reasons. They don't want to pay for talent (they were offering an Enterprise Architect $25/hour on a contract in the Cincinnati area , they don't want to pay for commercial tooling). Admittedly, in order for them to make money, they have to run truly Lean IT...but, they also make really foolish decisions. They were considering building their own cloud until it was pointed out just the sheer amount of capex needed for that project....and then the VMWare Licensing costs. They spend a crazy amount of money on SurePOS, but, then don't pay for any of the Verifone branding/customization/contactless enablement for their terminals. Technologies like LaneHawk help their cashiers catch shrink, but, their cashiers comment that it's ineffective and do not work 95% of the time. If it was my job to move Kroger's technology forward, I'd probably do the following: * Look at ways to help the cashiers do their job better and more effectively. Finding ways to shave transaction time will add up, enabling more customers per hour to flow through the transaction lines. * Microservices in the store level for things that need to have store level availability, but, push things to cloud services where it's feasible. Yes -- let's buy bigger pipes to the cloud, but, keep a smaller server at the store in case things fail. We can manage that farm in the cloud more efficiently at scale, and then deploy out to the stores nightly or weekly versus continuous delivery in the cloud. * Vendor Selection: Use the right vendors for the right things. Look at how you're spending your money with your vendors, and do a double check to make sure you're not being foolish with your spending (ala, vendors like Pomeory -- 99.99% of the time, you can do it better in house)

tedmiston 8y ago
I think Kroger is the Amazon of the grocery space. Even with several attempts, Amazon hasn't been able to change that so far. Too many grocery items are expensive/heavy to ship. I'm in Cincinnati (Kroger HQ) and Amazon is trying extra hard here with special pilots. > Kroger has looked at other delivery services, but, can't find one for the same price point They are already using Instacart in the US and Ocado in the UK. > They want to use GCE, but, they're truly struggling to use it. This is outdated info. Their GCP partnership was publicly announced ~6 months ago.